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Which LEDs? Seriously, you can get up to 5W LEDs now. Lumens/W is at about 50-70 now. What's attractive for autos is more the smaller, more flexible form factor than for other lighting technologies. That, and the incredible, reliable lifetime.

I read this is only true as long as you manage to keep those LEDs cool - around 25 degrees celsius. If they "overheat" above 35 degrees their life span dramaticaly shortens from couple of years to couple of hours.

I was intent on doing some further research and report my findings on LEDs. Without going into that for now here are my thoughts on what has been brought up thus far along with some other considerations:

- LEDs make perfect sense, especially in an EV application since it requires less energy to emit the same amount of lumens; I've even heard that LEDs can be even brighter than xenon lights
- Although LEDs are still expensive they are much cheaper than xenon lights; I'm surprised that the Roadster doesn't have them as standard since pretty much all luxury/sport vehicles have them. Correct me if I'm wrong but I heard that they also use less energy than halogens.
- Personally I like daytime running lights (DRLs) as a safety feature although I've come across some complaints ranging from glare to fuel consumption. Compared to not having DRLs, those that do have them are much more visible when looking up the road. My one concern with DRLs though is that I've begun to notice that automakers are really starting to aim them so high that they cause significant glare to other motorist's rear and side view mirrors.
- I don't know if anyone has noticed but automakers seem to be switching to red rear turn indicators as oppose to orange ones. I am aware that in North America rear lights can only be white, red, and orange. To me red should be reserved for the fog/parking and break lamps, while orange is strictly for turn indicators (and white obviously for reverse). People are going to get confused when they see a flashing red light that refers to a lane change while the driver ahead intends to slow down. This becomes more apparent when I always see people who are not aware that some of their exterior lights need to be replaced and we have a situation where if they break it can initially look like they are initiating a lane change.
- Automatic headlights are a neat feature but as far as I'm concerned, if you are the type of driver who needs to be reminded of when you should turn on your lights and thus rely on that feature we have a serious problem here.

Which LEDs? Seriously, you can get up to 5W LEDs now. Lumens/W is at about 50-70 now. What's attractive for autos is more the smaller, more flexible form factor than for other lighting technologies. That, and the incredible, reliable lifetime.

Click to expand...

Now at 111 Lumens/Watt (and, as far as i can tell, it should be usable for headlights):

[Cree] announces the commercial availability of the XLamp® XP-G LED, the industry’s brightest and most efficient lighting-class LED. The XP-G LED can produce up to 367 lumens when driven at 1A, at a typical efficacy of 111 lumens per watt; making it 46 percent brighter and 64 percent more efficient than the highest-performance XR-E LED, with an 80 percent smaller footprint.

I think they are a bit more than "accent lights". They seem to be the "daytime running lights" that are always on. Other cars tend to run the regular lights at partial brightness to satisfy that requirement.

...Audi says that its new Audi R8 mid-engined sports car will be the first series-production car to offer the option of ordering all the headlight functions – dipped beam, main beam, daytime running lights and indicators – as LEDs. The option will become available from the end of 2007 onwards...

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